Startup rewrites NXPís legacy in 3D passive integrationNews & Analysis 8/27/2009 Post a commentEconomic crises can have positive as well as negative impacts. Thus, if NXP had not divested its wireless business and decided to sell its integrated passives device unit near Caen, Normandy (France), Ipdia would not have emerged with an ambition to deliver next-generation 3D-SiP modules for various applications, including advanced LED modules.

Dresden is like Silicon Valley: hungry talent & excellent educationNews & Analysis 8/27/2009 1 commentHow comes that the Dresden area is the most remarkable center for start-up activities in Germany? The answer is that in the town, all ingredients necessary such as excellent mathematical education and a generation of engineers with great ideas meet. The ignition spark, however, has been imported from the U.S. Ė in person of Gerhard Fettweis, professor at the Dresden Technical University. In the interview Fettweis explains what are the essentials for start-up friendly environments and which techn

Plenty of business in VDSL for LantiqNews & Analysis 8/27/2009 Post a commentChristian Wolff, designated CEO of Infineon's wireline business sold to Golden Gate Capital, explains the company's strategies in terms of product spectrum, technologies and geographies.

Taray appoints Bernie Aronson to Board of DirectorsProduct News 8/27/2009 Post a commentTaray, Inc., a supplier of electronic design automation for design of
FPGA-based systems, announced it has made a key addition to
its board of directors with the appointment of Bernie Aronson, an
industry veteran in semiconductors and electronic design automation.

Small engines get greenerProduct News 8/26/2009 7 commentsEmissions from small gasoline engines could be reduced using a new analog chip that Freescale Semiconductor introduced at a technology forum in Shenzhen, China.

Comment: A cold corporate hand chills Hot ChipsBlog 8/26/2009 4 commentsThe cold hand of corporate marketing has a firm grip on the esophagus of the electronics industry, controlling what gets said, when it gets said and in what key it is vocalized, muting technical conferences such as Hot Chips and ISSCC.

Fishy power requirementsPower DesignLine Blog 8/26/2009 Post a commentMIT researchers have displayed prototype robotic fish that have just ten moving parts, including a single motor. Some prototypes have survived in the lab for four years of constant underwater tests without a leak.

Sun, IBM push multicore boundariesNews & Analysis 8/26/2009 Post a commentSun Microsystems claimed a new watermark for server CPUs, unveiling Rainbow Falls, a 16-core, 128-thread processor at the Hot Chips conference, but analysts gave the IBM Power7 kudos as the more compelling achievement in the latest round of high-end server processors.

MIPS adds high def, ALi to its Android pushProduct News 8/26/2009 Post a commentMIPS Technologies took small steps forward on its journey to bring the Google Android operating system to consumer electronics devices, demonstrating a high def Android system and adding Taiwan's Ali Corp. to its list of partners.

Gartner ups semi market expectationsNews & Analysis 8/26/2009 Post a commentStrong customer demand and the effects of stimulus packages in China helped to partially iron out the dent in the global semiconductor market. Against this background, market researcher Gartner has lifted its revenue forecast to minus 17 percent for 2009. Earlier, the experts predicted a decline of 22.4 percent. But reasons persist to remain cautious.

Trends in power management semiconductors in mobile applicationsDesign How-To 8/25/2009 Post a commentIt's a fact, that consumers have an insatiable appetite for smaller, lighter, and function-rich portable electronic devices. But to do so, designers need to grasp integration, and the latest integration trends are in the power management ICs that have come from the simple MOSFET switch, to today's advanced load switches. Learn how with this design article.

Chip supports realtime accident data recordingProduct News 8/25/2009 Post a commentAutomotive OEMs, accident researchers and insurance companies increasingly are interested in an equipment component for cars which in aircraft has been established as standard equipment already for a long time: A drive recorder. This 'black box' could record accident data in realtime, shedding light on the cause of an accident.

Toyota tops 'clunker' sales listNews & Analysis 8/25/2009 1 commentToyota Motor Co. was the primary beneficiary of the U.S. government's "Cash for Clunkers" program, accounting for three of the top five models purchased by new car buyers, according to a new survey of the auto stimulus program.

Engineer seeks $60 million bonus from AtmelNews & Analysis 8/25/2009 3 commentsDr. Andreas Paul Schueppen, a former employee of Atmel Germany GmbH, is preparing for his first day in court in a case filed against his former employer in which he is claiming he is owed 42 million euro (about $60 million) as an "inventor's bonus."

Energy management for automationDesign How-To 8/25/2009 Post a commentEnergy management and responsible handling of resources is currently the number one topic in industry. In light of this, the Automation Initiative of German Automobile Manufacturers (AIDA) asked the PROFIBUS organization and PROFINET International (PI) to provide functions and mechanisms for PROFINET that support energy-efficient production.

Simplifying design of industrial process-control systems with PLC evaluation boards (Part 1 of 2)Design How-To 8/24/2009 1 comment
PLC evaluation board applications for industrial process-control systems are diverse, ranging from simple traffic control to complex electrical power grids, from environmental control systems to oil-refinery process control. This two-part series looks at using a PLC evaluation board to simplify design, with a practical example application outlined including schematics and tutorial on using the system.

Market researcher: Bosch bought Akustica for its MEMS integration approachNews & Analysis 8/24/2009 Post a commentWhen recently automotive electronics giant Bosch toke over tiny MEMS microphone company Akustica, the reason was the latter one's expertise in integrating MEMS on standard chips, presumes market researcher The Information Network. The move is not intended to help Bosch to enter the electro-acoustic devices market, but strengthen its leading position in the automotive MEMS scene.

Comment: Intel's counsel of complacency on energy efficiencyNews & Analysis 8/24/2009 Post a commentIntel and Microsoft funded a Stanford University professor, to produce a series of research papers that assess the energy and environmental impacts of information technology. Peter Clarke argues that many of the benefits that have been quantified in this research are already factored in to our apprecation and that more needs to be done than we are inheriting from Moore's Law.

Solarflare integrates 10GBase-T on a single chipNews & Analysis 8/24/2009 Post a commentSolarflare Communications debuts two chips that mark a significant milestone on the road to the long delayed transition to 10 Gbit/second Ethernet, but the industry still faces a host of challenges eking out mainstream markets for 10 Gbit Ethernet over copper.

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Timesí Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.